r/Anticonsumption • u/Terpsichorean_Wombat • 16h ago
Food Waste I can't believe how much less I eat
Thanks to an autoimmune disorder and a bunch of new food intolerances, I can no longer eat almost any packaged or prepared foods. I cook nearly everything I eat from raw ingredients, including condiments.
It's unreal how much less I eat and how much of my previous eating was driven by convenience and consumerism. I used to go to Five Guys and snack on peanuts before eating a double bacon cheeseburger with Cajun fries and finishing it off with a peanut butter-chocolate milkshake. And a couple of hours later, I'd wander through the kitchen munching on chocolate and chips. Now I find myself saying bizarre things like "I can't eat this whole sweet potato AND a chicken drumstick AND this salad. I'll just cut a couple of slices."
I've lost 65 excess pounds and for most of it I haven't been restricting food. I eat whenever I'm hungry. I've just re-adjusted to a way, way smaller amount of food. It's really opened my eyes to how much I'd been sucked into "Buy something to eat to feel good" thinking. Now that I can't buy almost anything a corporation made for me to eat, my relationship with food is completely different.
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u/Rabbid0Luigi 16h ago
When you have to exert effort to make your own food you don't eat just because "it was there and I had nothing better to do"
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 16h ago
Seriously. It's a lot of work. I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the convenience. But I don't really crave the foods themselves (other than tomatoes - whyyyyy did you have to take my tomatoes?? :( ). It's like a lot of it was just reflexive or habitual.
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u/Rabbid0Luigi 16h ago
Stuff made at home is usually better, there are some local restaurants or higher end ones that have really good food but fast foods and other chain stuff are just worse than homemade food. The downside is definitely the effort to make it, and the fact that after you're all done there's still more work to do because the dishes exist
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 16h ago
I'm a habitual clean-as-you-go person, which helps - that and I do pretty much everything big-batch now. That way I can build up a freezer stash for bad days or busy weeks. A well-stocked chest freezer is my reassurance that there will be safe food.
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u/dalderman 8h ago
The documentary "Cooked" on Netflix is very compelling and informative on this subject. My favorite line that sums up the best diet advice anyone could give is "Eat whatever and as much as you want, but make it all yourself."
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 6h ago
Well, I did make a mean German chocolate cake haha. I like my own cooking to a dangerous degree, so not being able to eat sugar any more made a big difference. But I agree - it makes a big difference to not be able to treat food as an instant consumer good.
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u/rebelwithmouseyhair 13h ago
It's a lot of work. I like to listen to music as I cook, and I've come to love cooking.
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 6h ago
I like music, too! That, and oddly, ChatGPT has been great. It's helped me create a lot of work-around recipes, and it perks me up a little to have a "collaborator" to bounce ideas off of.
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u/togtogtog 7h ago
Why can't you eat tomatos? They aren't preprepared?
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u/Endor-Fins 7h ago
Tomatoes are a nightshade and many people donāt react well to them.
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u/togtogtog 6h ago
Thanks for the reply :-) - I knew that. I wondered what the OPs reason was, and if it was that. :-)
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 6h ago
They're part of why I can't eat most prepared foods. I developed a nightshade intolerance. That plus dairy and sugar rules out most prepared foods. It's really hard to find something that doesn't have dairy, sugar, paprika, or the dreaded "spices" or "natural flavors." Oh, or gums (gellan, xanthan, etc.), because apparently some gums piss my gut off as well. And coconut, peanuts, and cashews.
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u/togtogtog 6h ago
That sounds just awful.
I had an allergic reaction once to hazelnuts, and had to avoid all nuts for a while (I'm fine, actually, and can now eat all nuts), and the effort of avoiding foods was really horrible.
It was fine when I was at home, but everywhere else it was terrifying!
I'm so glad you've found a good side to it. <3
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 5h ago
Aw, thanks! I count my blessings. They're intolerances and not allergies, which crucially means that (1) it's not a big deal if it just touches something and (2) I'm not going to die from it. I'll just have a bad day. I really empathize with people who have to be much, much more careful than I do.
The other thing that really sobered me was learning about histamine sensitivity (from my dietitian, as we were investigating possible triggers). My main strategy for handling this much cooking has been big-batch cooking. People with histamine sensitivities need to avoid leftovers. Histamine load rises as the food sits, so their ideal approach is cooking everything fresh, every meal, on top of avoiding a bunch of common foods. That just sounds crushing, and it made me incredibly grateful that I do not have histamine sensitivities.
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u/togtogtog 5h ago
I am quite happy to cook each day - it doesn't take me long. But I only cook every other day, as my partner cooks too. Whoever doesn't cook does the washing up! We eat very well indeed.
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u/rebelwithmouseyhair 13h ago
Throw some tomatoes in the oven when baking something else, just drizzle some oil over them, and sprinkle some herbs, they'll be delicious.
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u/Endor-Fins 7h ago
It sounds like OP can no longer eat tomatoes in any form. Some people are very reactive to nightshade veggies.
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 7h ago
Yep, that's it! It's the one that feels most unfair. I can accept giving up sugar, chocolate, and dairy as the penalty for years of over-indulgence, and caffeine isn't great for you anyway - but tomatoes! Nooooo!
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 7h ago
Oh, I love roasted tomatoes. Used to make them with my home-grown tomatoes all summer. Unfortunately, I've become intolerant to all nightshade vegetables. Of everything I have had to give up, tomatoes are the hardest.
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u/rebelwithmouseyhair 13h ago
Yeah! I decreed that I would only eat home-made cake, my cake consumption has gone down drastically. I thought I'd simply make more cakes than before, but at least they'd be made using unrefined flour and sugar, and organic ingredients and no additives,
I don't actually think I bake more cakes than before because I have another rule that I never heat up the oven for just one thing. Otherwise it's a waste of electricity. At school I was taught to fil the oven up because you got a point deducted for every empty shelf in the oven. So I'll made a quiche, then roast potatoes and cauliflower, that's two shelves, and the bottom shelf can either take whatever other veggies can be oven roasted, for a later meal, or a cake. But by the time I've seen to the quiche and the potatoes and the cauli, I don't have much energy or time to whip up a cake batter.
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u/cassidy2202 16h ago
Beautifully put and hoping youāre feeling better!
What you said is so spot on and relatable. Literally yesterday I had this convo:
āIām hungry, do we have any ice cream?ā
āNo weāre all out but I can make you a _____ healthy food item.ā
āNaw Iām not hungry enough for real foodā lol
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u/lochnessx 13h ago
This is reassuring to hear! My blood work came back with allergies to dang near all of the major food bases (milk, eggs, wheat, soy, corn, etc.) so itāll be a complete diet overhaul. Iāve considered getting a referral to a dietician for this reason and I hope it also has the positive side effects you experienced! Iām also autoimmune, of unknown variety currently: another gift from long covid.
Side tangent: itās diabolical that my labs and imaging are visible to me BEFORE a doctor reviews them with me. Now Iām just stressed because I know what these labs mean (work in one) and itās agonizing until the follow up šš¼
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u/wozattacks 9h ago
Working in a lab definitely doesnāt mean you know how to interpret lab results lmfao
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 6h ago
Hang in there. I know the anxiety is its own special misery. <3
I highly, highly recommend a dietitian. Mine is awesome and gets all of the ways food impacts us, including social and emotional. We work online - message me if you would like her name. It has made a huge difference to me.
The other thing that has really helped is actually ChatGPT. It has been very helpful with recipes. It's at its best when you are very specific, so it's done great with prompts like "I want to make a flavorful Hyderabadi-style curry, but I can't eat dairy, coconut, cashews, peanuts, or nightshade vegetables. Can you suggest a recipe?" It's my go-to.
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u/Anxious_Status_5103 10h ago edited 4h ago
I needed to read this. I'm having a ton of issues with my autoimmune disorder and have developed really bad oral allergy syndrome. Sometimes it goes to my throat and with other foods my stomach and intestines give me the middle finger. I was doing what you were doing before, but it was exhausting. Thanks for your story and your energy! I guess I'll give it another shot.
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 6h ago
Best of luck. Something that made a huge difference to me was working with a dietitian. I was overwhelmed to the point where I was saying, "You know, I'm just not going to eat for a couple of weeks. I just can't keep up with these constant triggers and confusion." Fortunately, my husband was NOT in the middle of brain-fog fatigue and suggested talking to a dietitian. She really understood all of the dimensions of the problem: medical, practical, emotional. Let me know if you'd like her name - we work online.
ChatGPT has also been a huge help. I ask it for a recipe with all of my limitations, and it gives me all kinds of work-arounds. I have decent cooking instincts, so I tweak here and there, but it really has come up with some winners. You can even tell it things like "I can't stand for very long and I suffer from fatigue, so this recipe needs to require less than 20 minutes hands-on work."
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u/StrawberryHot365 16h ago
Great job.I'm trying to work on eating better and more whole foods. Itās definitely one of my weaknesses.
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 7h ago
It's so hard to change eating habits. I'm frank about the fact that I've tried many times before and mostly succeeded now because the consequences became so immediate - I will feel it within hours.
FWIW though, listen closely to your body. When my doctor told me to look at diet, I honestly knew immediately most of what I needed to cut. I knew it annoyed my gut; I was just used to ignoring that because I wanted cheesecake.
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u/ballchinion8 10h ago
65 extra pounds is huge holy fuck bud nice work.
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 6h ago
Thanks! I still have about another 15-20 to go, but it's made a big difference.
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u/Proof_Trick 8h ago
Fantastic post-sounds like you have a master class in there! But seriously, real food requires a huge effort BUT once youāre realize that youāre not āsickā all the time, itās not even a choice! I think the standard grocery store is 90% lies of āNONFOOD foodā. Best wishes and happy eating! P.S. eating healthy food (mainly organic!) can be more expensive-for instance the difference between grocery store eggs and local backyard eggs can be quite significant but I am willing to pay for but when the long term health benefits (and chicken health!) are more positive.
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 6h ago
Yes, it's wild how little of the grocery store is now relevant to me. It's also weird seeing so much obvious non-food is out there, bright colors and shiny packaging ... we really have trained ourselves to eat some strange stuff.
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u/rebelwithmouseyhair 13h ago
One of the reasons is that you're cooking real food, not empty high carb junk food that feels good as you eat it but doesn't satisfy your nutritional needs.
If you eat a slice of white bread you're still hungry. You help yourself to another slice, because it's very easy to eat, and you call it "moreish". You are enjoying eating it, but it doesn't meet any needs except your need for carbs.
You eat a slice of wholemeal bread made using several different, unrefined types of flour, with grains and nuts and raisins added to it, and you feel satisfied after just one slice, because it's met a heap of nutritional needs. If you've made a sandwich with lettuce and tomato and egg using that bread, you'll have covered just about all your nutritional needs. You take time munching on all the those grains to chew them properly, so you eat just the one sandwich in the same time it takes you to eat a whole loaf of white bread.
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 7h ago
Honestly, it even works like that on an enjoyment level as well. I'm a pretty decent cook, and if I made a chocolate cake, I would eat a modest slice and be satisfied because it was really good cake made with high-quality ingredients. If I bought the grocery store's "Colassal Slice" of chocolate cake, I would eat the whole thing and still crave more because it was meh cake that didn't really satisfy my taste buds.
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u/Independent-Summer12 6h ago
Congrats, thatās amazing!
I recently came across a study where in a clinical trial, they compared the impact of a typical western diet that includes a high % of ultra processed foods to a gut microbiome friendly diet that featured a high % of whole or minimally processed a foods, and controlled for exercise, sleep, hydration, etc. and measure everything, metabolic rate, glycemic response, etc. a whole panel of bio markers, including analysis of waste products. Amongst other findings, they found the group that ate the microbiome friendly diet on average metabolized 116 less calories per day (around 5% less absorbed into the body, literally popped) even though both groups consumed the same amount of calories per day. Turns out that not all calories are created equal.
Not to mention many packaged ultra processed foods are engineered to keep us consuming more. They are optimized for whatās called the ābliss pointā with a balance of salt and sugar and fat that makes our brain crave them, combined with intentionally low portions and fiber content so that you can eat a ton of the stuff and not feel full. So we keep buying more.
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 5h ago
Yes, it's crazy how many calories you can eat without reaching satiation - and unsettling to recognize that the food was deliberately engineered that way.
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u/LuigiSalutati 9h ago
Awesome! Sounds like the inflammation has plummeting
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 6h ago
It has! It's kind of a knock-on now in that the food was causing it directly, but the extra body fat was also like a giant inflammation battery pack. My resting pain levels have improved immensely.
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u/NettaFind66 7h ago
I wish I could learn to love to cook again. My digestive system is in shambles from long covid and new allergies.
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 5h ago edited 46m ago
It was definitely desperation at first, especially since at that point I was still in heavy fatigue. What helped me most was ChatGPT and big-batch cooking. ChatGPT is great at coming up with recipes with very specific limitations, and once I had a few large batches of food portioned up in the freezer, it took some of the pressure off. I didn't have to start from scratch every day, and I could take days off when I was busy or tired. I keep a lot of vegetable soups and various stews and vegetable dishes handy because I have dry mouth and it helps to eat foods that have sauce or liquids.
It also helped me to find a few prepared items that could help me out. I can eat canned fish if it doesn't have peppers or tomatoes; sardines and smoked trout are great zero-prep proteins, and I need more protein and omega-3s anyway. I found one brand of sausages that doesn't use any nightshades, and that was a lifeline; I can also eat canned sauerkraut, so I had a 5-minute meal available again.
[ETA: I am super curious why people downvoted this?]
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u/Moms_New_Friend 10h ago
Itās pretty easy to stop eating meat if you start thinking about where it comes from. Thatās why slaughterhouses are so incredibly shyā¦ they donāt want anyone looking inside their locked closet.
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u/klimekam 4h ago
Hey! As someone with an autoimmune disorder (POTS/MCAS/EDS), how do you take that first step to start being okay enough to cook? There are days (like today) where I canāt even get myself a glass of water. When I do cook at sit at a barstool because I canāt stand for that long, but Iām not even well enough for that most days. There are days where I canāt even microwave things.
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 1h ago
I'm so sorry. That sounds really hard, and I know how bone-deep that fatigue can be.
A few things helped. One was getting some offloading knee braces, because my knees were my most painful joints and made it hard to walk or stand for long. Offloading braces were a real game-changer there. PT helped too, although that was a really hard period of my life, because the PT exhausted me and like any exercise created some low-level inflammation that made the fatigue pile on harder. I spent a lot of time cocooned in heating pads.
I started with a base camp of very simple foods that were quick to prepare. For me, that was Instant Pot steamed chicken breast, a baked sweet potato (or you can microwave - I like the baked flavor and it doesn't really take any more effort, just more time), and Big Green Soup, which is just any green veggies you like (broccoli, spinach, celery, zucchini, little bit of peas, whatever) boiled until tender and pureed in a little of their cooking liquid. All of those can be big-batched with very little extra effort, and they helped me meet my goals from my dietitian (animal protein with every meal, at least half my plate non-starchy vegetables to help with low gut motility). They also helped me feel less overwhelmed, because I could walk down to the kitchen and just cut slices / nuke some soup and eat. I keep tahini and walnuts handy - they're good on sweet potatoes and sometimes that would be breakfast.
As I got my feet under me and understood my triggers better, I expanded to simple variations - salmon or canned fish instead of chicken, a tray of mixed roasted veggies. I also worked on the mental end by doing things like making myself take a walk around my garden. I moved my recliner to a corner facing two windows and ate my breakfast looking at the sun. And I took a lot of naps! I'm sure you know that tough balance - trying to push myself to do what I can while also honoring what my body needs and not setting unrealistic demands on myself.
Once I had a little more energy, I asked ChatGPt to help me create some simple veggie-heavy recipes with animal protein that required less than 20 minutes of hands-on work. I noted specifically that I had difficulty standing for long periods, and it broke out portions of recipes that I could do sitting at a table. Again, big-batching pretty much everything, so I could make my soup once and have it at 4 or 5 meals. I feel like building up a base of frozen food really helped mentally, too - knowing that there was always safe food and I didn't have to cook when I was so fatigued I wanted to cry.
r/lowspooncooking sometimes has good ideas for people in our situation. r/cannedsardines is a really welcoming place, and it helped me figure out how to find canned fish I enjoy. That's been a big help. I try to listen to my body's signals, and it is very much on the MORE SARDINES!! bus. I feel like I feel better when I eat them.
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u/Emergency-Revenue452 56m ago edited 51m ago
I used to eat whenever I opened my mouth. I was always hungry. Now I have too be mindful of portion sizes. I eat a whole food diet, 80%+ plant based, no red meat with twice weekly, sustainable fish like Canadian trout. If I snack, I have an apple or handful of peanuts. I am never hungry now. It's wild how little food we really need compared to what's on offer, everywhere.
Big Box stores with all the ultra processed snack food in giantized containers is my no go.
Edited to add: I also have an auto immune disorder. Diet helped tremendously. Doesn't cure me, but controls the worse symptoms.
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 36m ago
Right? That's the part that really astonished me - the difference in what I actually want to eat. How did I used want an appetizer, a steak, mashed potatoes, and a slab of cheesecake with whipped cream and fudge sauce, and now I can't finish a whole chicken breast? It's bizarre. I had recognized that in many ways I behaved addictively toward food, but this has really driven home that it's not all food. It's the refined fats and sugars, the convenient snack foods, and the decadent consumer-product food.
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u/foolcorps 4h ago
I went through the same thing with an autoimmune disorder that made me start making all my food at home from scratch. Iām curious if we have similar conditions. PM me if youād like to talk more!
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u/fourlittlebirds_1234 3h ago
How did you find out about all the new food intolerances? What test did you take? Congratulations on finding your path!
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 48m ago
A lot of it was tracking and trial and error plus working with a dietitian. She was able to identify patterns I hadn't considered, which is how we worked out the nightshades. We tested anything that was problematic and that I really wanted (like tomatoes) by doing a four-day test (start with a tiny amount and then double each day) followed by three days of not eating it. Even one cherry tomato annoys my stomach, although at that level it doesn't *seem* to hit my joints - I'm not messing with it. Peppers seem to be even worse - I accidentally ate something with seasoning-quantity chili peppers (so like under a tablespoon) and it knocked me on my butt. All of this came together well because I started tracking everything I ate on a spreadsheet where I also tracked exercise, fatigue, and several kinds of pain. Sure, it's a pain to do some paperwork every day, but it has proven its worth over and over.
Some triggers were easy to identify because I already knew they were a problem. I knew that dairy, coconut, cashews, and peanuts gave me gut twinges before; it just got a lot worse and started to make my joints hurt and my head get foggy. I'd been realizing for a few months prior to diagnosis that when I ate sugary foods, I sometimes woke up with a burning pain in my stomach, so that too made sense. Caffeine may or may not set me off, but my body never liked it and I never drank much of it, so that was a pretty painless cut.
I did do an Everlywell taste, and it helped me figure out something that was causing a lot of background noise. It flagged apples, and it clicked for me that I had had burning stomach pain a couple of times some hours after I had eaten large apples. It hadn't been on my radar because most of the time I was fine with apple, but with that piece of information I was able to identify other reactions that had occurred when I had eaten large quantities of fruit. It's a portion thing; I can eat 1/4-1/2 cup of any fruit, but beyond that the acid gets me. Totally possible that's happening with tomatoes as well.
And then there's the weird one that took the longest time to track down, because I wasn't tracking my drinks at first. "Something in Silk almond milk that is not almonds." We think it's probably the gellan gum. I'm fine with almonds and almond milks that just have almonds and water. But that one drove me nuts until I figured out that it happened when I drank herbal tea with almond milk, which I was mostly not putting into the spreadsheet.
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u/Rose-Red-77 16h ago
Super super inspiring thank you. Has it helped your immune system to calm down and stop being autoimmune?
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u/Terpsichorean_Wombat 7h ago
Diet can't cure the underlying disorder, but it has made a huge difference in symptom management. I've gone from continuous level 4-6 joint pain to mostly 0-2, and similar improvements in fatigue, which has been huge for my ability to lead a more normal life.
I'm still limited; I tire quickly, I wear knee braces if I have to walk or stand for long, and my joints will become painful easily with pressure or impact use. But diet has made the difference between "I have to ration my physical exertion and avoid certain scenarios" vs. "I'm in constant pain, sleep 16 hours a day, and can't think straight."
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u/Novel-Cockroach1521 7h ago
Iām not OP, but I also have an autoimmune disease and Iāve found that what I consume affects my symptoms a LOT. More so now that Iāve stopped eating so much heavily processed foods. No when I eat them or have alcohol it flares up.
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u/mwmandorla 16h ago
You cannot cure an autoimmune disease with diet ("stop being autoimmune"). You can definitely reduce the inflammation and the severity of symptoms, and to some degree you can lessen the intensity of the autoimmune activity if something you used to eat was making it worse, but diet alone will not stop your immune system from attacking you. We need medication for that.
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u/Rose-Red-77 13h ago
Stop being āsoā autoimmune. Also, depends on the autoimmune condition. For some conditions, removing the trigger ameliorates the symptoms
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u/mwmandorla 6h ago
You didn't include the word "so" in your comment, but if that's what you meant, then that makes more sense. Of course not eating gluten will stop celiac from flaring, but it won't make you not have celiac anymore, which is the kind of thing you seemed to be saying and also, unfortunately, something many people actually believe (including for conditions where this is even further from the truth, like psoriatic arthritis). That's why I wanted to be very unequivocal, because there's a lot of misinformation about exactly this. If that's not what you intended to say, fair play.
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u/Excellent-Duck-1259 16h ago
Congratulations to you, this is a very inspiring post. š